Thursday 10 March 2011

Handle with care

Round 30: May 2032 (Autumn)
last update/next update

Abigail Carmody is 49, Jesse is 47, Mitchell is 13 and Austin and Lauren are both 11.
(Tatiana is 49, Nick is 29, Sarah is 27 and Thomas is 11 months old)

Narrated by Abigail Carmody

Thomas is 11 months old now. I guess I'm biased but he's just so adorable.

Even the kids love him.

I was expecting the novelty of becoming aunts and uncles so young to wear off but they're all still very sweet with him, almost a year later.

It's really sweet to watch them with him, actually.

I have to say, it still feels so strange to call myself a grandmother. When I think of grandmothers, I think of little old ladies with grey hair who knit and bake cakes. It's hard to see myself in that role.

I do love seeing Thomas though and he's a beautiful baby. It just seems like Nick growing up and starting his own family sort of snuck up on me!

So you can imagine how surprised I was when Nick announced that Sarah was pregnant again! She's due in November, so I guess she's about 10 weeks along.

I'm happy if my kids are happy and Nick is ecstatic. But "stunned" does not even begin to describe my reaction.

I mean, Thomas isn't even a year old yet!

Nick and Sarah really are thrilled with their news. They were so excited when they learned Sarah was expecting Thomas, so they're just over the moon now that she's pregnant again.

I hope this new baby is an easy one. Nick and Sarah will eventually have two toddlers at once and I speak from experience when I say that two toddlers can be a trial!

Jesse and I were talking about the impending addition once Nick and Sarah had left. We both got to wondering if they were actually trying to conceive or if it was as big a surprise to them as it was to us.

I guess we'll never know. It's not exactly the kind of thing I feel comfortable asking.

Mostly though, we talked about how glad we are that it's not us! For a while, Jesse and I both thought it might be nice to have a fourth (or what would have been a fifth for me) but we are so over that now. Mitchell, Austin and Lauren are plenty for us.

I already feel like I have a fourth child in the house sometimes anyway, with Jesse around.

Mitchell has always been interested in food but he's stepped it up recently and has decided he wants to be a chef. We have to order him to bed sometimes, because he's up late scouring cookbooks or the internet.

If he keeps up his interest as he gets older, I'll ask him if he'd like to talk to Caleb about the culinary industry around here. It wasn't so long ago that Caleb started out, so he might have some good advice for Mitchell.

We took a vacation to the mountains recently. I hadn't been since before Jesse and I were even married. I went alone that time and I wanted to experience a family trip there.

Austin and Lauren really enjoyed themselves. They spent a lot of time fishing and Lauren discovered she has quite a talent for it.

Mitchell had a good time too but he spent most of it talking to a girl he met.

I only met her very briefly but Rachel seemed like a really nice girl.

She definitely seemed very keen on Mitchell.

Jesse and I ended up just letting them do their own thing for most of the trip, while we kept an eye on them from afar.

Now that we're back at home, Mitchell's been talking to Rachel on the phone quite a lot. She's a local girl, thank goodness, or else I'd be very worried about the phone bill!

Mitchell's asked Jesse if it would be okay if he asked Rachel out on a date and Jesse told him he could. I'm not really surprised by it, because Mitchell is about the same age Nick was when he started dating Josie.

It all feels a bit new to me again though. Nick's early teens feel like so long ago sometimes. I've been talking it over a little with Tatiana, seeing she has more recent experience with teens.

She worries so much about her kids though and she ends up making me worry or making me wonder why I'm not worried.

We have very different approaches to parenting, apparently.

Jesse and I are hoping to remain a little more relaxed about our kids dating. I'm glad we're on the same page about it.

I hope he can keep that attitude when Austin and Lauren get to the dating stage. They're only a couple of years behind Mitchell.

I'm mainly thinking about Lauren, because I know that fathers are sometimes very different with their daughters than they are with their sons. I'll be there to make sure Jesse doesn't trying laying down different rules for Lauren and her brothers!

Poll results:
So while reading this post, you likely figured out that Nick and Sarah are the couple who got pregnant at Calvin and Aaron's wedding. They did try for a baby - it wasn't an accident or birth control failure. They actually weren't even on birth control, because I stupidly didn't put Sarah back on it once she got pregnant with Thomas. I wasn't planning on letting them have another baby so soon but they both have the want, so it fits that they would.

I like to preserve my poll results for posterity, so here's the rundown:
Most of you (47% or 22 of you, to be exact) thought it was Patience and Rob. They got twice as many votes as the runners-up, Maia and Ethan (23% or 11 voters).
Only 7 of you (15%) guessed correctly and voted for Sarah and Nick. 6 of you (13%) voted for Audrey and Connor. I can tell you now that Audrey and Connor were the only couple at the wedding who didn't rush for the photo booth - both are still virgins, so I guess it wasn't what they had in mind for their first time!
Not a single one of you voted for Victoria and Finn! They were probably the least likely couple given that they have both reached their ACR Ideal Family number and are on birth control.

Feel free to share who you voted for in Comments!

Notes:
  • Title is from Handle With Care, a cover of a Traveling Wilburys song by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins.
  • Because Sarah got pregnant before Rose, she is also due before her. She'll give birth in November, while Rose will have her baby in December.
  • I will probably revisit Mitchell and Rachel when I play Cordy and Eliot. Mitchell is best friends with Timothy, so he's likely to make a cameo. If you're wondering though, Rachel and Mitchell have 2 bolts. Of the girls he's attracted to though, she's the lowest. Mitchell is apparently quite attractive to the girls of Sullivan. ;)
  • I've always thought of Jesse and Abigail as more laid-back parents. It's quite possible that Jesse won't like one (or more!) of Lauren's boyfriends one day but with Jesse, I think it's more likely that he'd have a concrete reason. That would be in contrast to someone like Jace, who started off disliking most of his daughters' boyfriends on principle. ;)

13 comments:

  1. I guessed right! Sarah and Nick were my guess for the couple who got pregnant at the wedding. I don't know what I'm more excited about, seeing Thomas as a toddler or seeing their new baby!

    I would have imagined too that Abigail and Jesse are more of the laid-back type of parents. It'll be interesting to see if Jesse has double standards when it comes to Lauren.

    Abigail and Jesse seem like a really solid couple nowadays, I guess the difficulties they had some years ago only made their relationship stronger.

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  2. Mitchell's girl is pretty!

    I can't remember who I voted for in the poll, but I'm glad it was Nick and Sarah! Awww! :)

    Audrey and Connor would have been shocking! (And immaculate conception, lol!) But I was actually wondering if they were still virgins or not, and I think I kind of assumed that they were, and no, totally not the type to lose it in a photo booth, lol! (You know, I *have* actually had a couple lose it in a photo booth!?!)

    How old are they now? I wonder if Audrey is competing with my Vicky for the title of Oldest Virgin Alive? Vicky is 19.5 and no prospects on the horizon, lol!

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  3. Aww well I already said in my comments on the wedding but I voted for Maia and Ethan. So no cookie for me. But I'm not disappointed that it was Nick and Sarah who are pregnant again! I hope they can handle 2 young children. I'm definitely more excited to see Thomas turn 1 but seeing how cute he is will make me more excited for the new baby to arrive.

    I'm glad Abigail and Jesse were able to have a little family vacation. I can't believe she will be 50 next year! And good luck to Mitchell and Rachel. She is pretty. I love the way he looks in the family photo at the beginning. I said before that I was pleasantly surprised at how good he looks now that he's older. I imagine that's how Jesse would have looked when he was younger. Great update!

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  4. Sari, I remembered that you said Sarah and Nick right away! I'm not sure if anyone else did (in Comments anyway). Assuming I get time to play Olivia and Steve today, I'm going to age up Thomas once I'm done - exciting!

    I definitely don't see Abigail or Jesse as being too strict, even taking into account the fact that Abigail was a teen mother and doesn't want that for her kids. But we'll see how Jesse is once Lauren starts dating!

    Abigail and Jesse had a fairly rocky start and then another rocky patch later on in their marriage but they've figured out what the other wants now and they're all the happier for it.

    Thanks for reading. :)

    Laura, I was glad Mitchell took a liking to a pretty townie and not some fug I haven't made over yet. ;)

    LOL, I would have been mad if it was Audrey and Connor! I'm not ready for her to become a mother! But yeah, they're both still virgins.

    Poor Vicky! Maybe April can set her up with someone! But anyway, Connor is 19 and Audrey is 20, so she beats out Vicky for Oldest Virgin Alive! Lia holds the record though - she waited until marriage and I think she was 26. But for Oldest Current Virgin, Audrey wins.

    Thanks for reading. :)

    Danielle, well, honestly, Maia and Ethan was a good guess! I'm continually amazed she's never got herself knocked up - not with Jacob, not with Nick and not with Ethan. Crazy!

    Nick and Sarah are probably the kind of nuts who would enjoy that kind of chaos. They both want some insane amount of kids - I believe Nick wants 5 and Sarah wants 8!

    Well, I had to give Abigail a vacation vacation, rather than a "sort your damn head out" vacation, which is what she had with her first trip to Three Lakes! The poor girl still hasn't stayed in a hotel though!

    Mitchell is a cutie. I should age Jesse down to teen and compare him with his son. I don't think Mitchell has much of Abigail in him at all but I could be wrong.

    Thanks for reading. :)

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  5. I really wonder how Nick and Sarah are going to handle having two babies so close together. It's going to be tough for awhile.

    That vacation looks fun. It's always great to get the family together and spend a relaxing time together.

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  6. HCove, it's going to be a challenge for Nick and Sarah, I'm sure. There's a reason that I would have put them back on BC for the meantime, had I remembered to!

    I hadn't done a real vacation with my Sims for a good while. I kept just popping in, getting the pics I needed and sending them back home. Poor Sims!

    Thanks for reading. :)

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  7. No fair!!!! Blogger ated my comment :( I don't remember exactly what I wrote, but it was somewhere along the lines of "whoa another kiddo, I share their parents' concern, but I am curious to see the new little one(s)" also, several of my simmies waited until after marriage as well to woohoo.

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  8. Mitchell starts dating, time does go fast! Rachel seems like a nice girl. I wonder is Jesse will be so relaxed once Lauren comes to ask if she can date :)

    So it was Nick and Sarah, not my guess because they only recently had little Thomas, but I'm sure they'll do well, and as always I'm very excited to see this little one. I can understand the parents' concern of having a second one so close to the first one.

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  9. Apple Valley, it seems to be doing that a lot lately. :/ It's irritating.

    But anyway, yeah, another kid for Nick and Sarah! Thomas is quite an active little one, so they'll definitely have their hands full. ;)

    I think Lia is my only Sim ever to wait for marriage! I've used ACR for a long time and they're always quite keen to jump into bed with that. Lia would have as well, had I not turned off woohoo on her token. She just didn't seem like the type to me.

    Thanks for reading. :)

    Tanja, I know! I was going to steer Mitchell away from that girl but then I remembered he's 13 now and that's usually when I let them start dating. If Jesse starts trying to enforce any double standards when it's Lauren's turn, I think Abigail will object, so she'll have her mum on side. ;)

    If I was a reader, I probably wouldn't have guessed Nick and Sarah either! With ACR, Sims are less likely to try for a baby if there's already a baby in the house. Unless they're totally nuts like Nick and Sarah are, apparently! But I'm excited to see this one as well, especially since I aged up Thomas! You guys will see him tomorrow and he's unbelievably adorable.

    Thanks for reading. :)

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  10. I can't even remember who I voted for! I don't think I voted for Sarah and Nick though. Oh man those two. I guess it was a surprise to everyone but them, lol.

    Mitchell is a cutie. He looks so much like his father!

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  11. Lunar, I went back to check the wedding post to see if you'd made a guess in the Comments but you hadn't. Not many people guessed it would be Sarah and Nick though; it was their little secret up until now.

    I'm looking forward to playing more with Mitchell, especially now he's got his little girlfriend. They're really cute together.

    Thanks for reading. :)

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  12. Nick and Sarah! Oh wow. That is very soon after Thomas!

    Hmm...the bolts are not working in something long-term for Mitchell and Rachel, but it's nice that he was able to chat someone up while on the camping trip. :)

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  13. Rachel, it is very soon! I've already done the smart thing and put Sarah on birth control while still pregnant, just in case she and Nick try to pull a fast one on me again!

    At 13, I don't worry too much about the bolts. I just let them have fun. Though Finn and Victoria had only one bolt at first and look what happened with them. ;)

    Thanks for reading. :)

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